Can You Ever Get Tired of Pizza?

Okay, maybe not every Friday. Sometimes, for reasons beyond our control, we can’t make pizza on Friday. So we make it on Saturday instead. Occasionally, someone will ask me if I get tired of eating pizza. In all cases, the person asking the question has never had the pleasure of eating our pizza. Is it the crispy, thin crust? Is it the freshness of the ingredients? Or is it merely the fact that I consider pizza to be a food group in and of itself? Maybe it’s all the above. I think the real reason we never tire of pizza is that the toppings are always changing. Fresh tomato and basil in the summer yield to roasted squash and Gorgonzola in the fall.

We track our hits and misses (Yes, there have been a few yucks.) in a pizza log. Here is a look at some of our (mostly vegetarian) tried and true, white pizza favorites:

Beth, we love red sauce pizza too, but we get in a rut with it. We either have garlic, spinach and mushroom, roasted red pepper, pepperoni, or basil and fresh mozzarella. Sometimes we add hot banana peppers. I’m open to new ideas for red pizza that don’t involve green peppers!

I have pizza just about every Friday as well, whether with my family, my boyfriend or just myself! Tonight the boyfriend and I are making artichoke pizza! I have been meaning to make butternut squash pizza for some time now but you have re-inspired me! By the way, I love that you keep a pizza log, haha! True dedication!🙂

Hi! I love the website! We just started making pizza but (you’ll kill me) I have been using pizza crust from a mix. I am going to try your pizza dough recipe on Friday- wish me luck! I am feeling inspired after “cooking” in your kitchen under your tutelage🙂

Thanks Maile! Don’t fret about the box crust. You’ve got to start somewhere. Years ago we ate doctored up frozen pizzas. Let me know how the crust turns out for you. Once you start making your own, you won’t want to go back to the box.

Hi — the pizza was AWESOME. It was great being free to use all our favorite toppings – and so cheap! Mine was pepperoni, cilantro, red onion, jalapeno, garlic and mushroom. That would have cost a fortune and we are never happy with the crust on delivered pizzas. We are going to make this our Friday night tradition also! My only question is why my crust turned out dry. The dough rose nicely, it was nice and soft. So my questions are: 1) we have one of those aerated pizza pans with holes in it. It makes the crust nice & crispy. Should we not prebake the crust if we use that? Or prebake it for less time? 2) Would brushing some olive oil on it before putting it in the oven work?

We prebake for two reasons — we like super crispy crust, and it’s hard to slide the pizza onto the stone when it’s loaded with toppings. If you are using a pizza pan and not a stone, you don’t have to worry about that. If you want a softer crust you can:
1. make smaller pizzas (thicker)
2. skip the prebake or reduce the time you prebake.

We use this method sometimes depending on what toppings we’re working with. It will give you a softer crust overall and a chewier crust at the edges. If you want to make an ingredient heavy pizza or one with very wet ingredients, I still recommend the prebake.

I roast the squash ahead of time–1/2″ cubes tossed with olive oil and salt and roasted at 400F for 25-30 minutes. To build the pizza sprinkle the crust with minced garlic, then shredded duck confit (from one leg), chopped fresh sage leaves, the roasted squash cubes, and finally about 5 ounces of grated smoked gouda. If the cheese is too smokey for your liking, you can do half smoked and half mozzarella. Hope this helps!